Aug 11, 2011

NewsNM - Swickard: we sometimes forget all of the backup we have in our country for general aviation from the air traffic people to the Civil Air Patrol and others who search for missing aircraft and provide support. From the Alamogordo Daily News - ROSWELL - Authorities say a plane that transmitted a hijacking distress signal, prompting a land and air search southeast of Roswell, has been found. State police Sgt. Lance Batemen says the plane landed safety at Sierra Blanca airport in Ruidoso. He says the pilot told authorities he accidentally hit the hijacking distress code while flying through a storm, then lost all power. Bateman says about 20 state police and Chaves County officers as well as state police and Bureau of Land Management planes spent more than three hours scouring the area about 35 miles west of the Texas-New Mexico border after the FAA lost contact with the plane. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford says the code used by pilots to signal a hijacking is just one digit different from the general distress code. Read more